Infineon Chipset May Be Cause of IPhone 3G Issues 298
JagsLive sends along a CNet blog piece about a plausible theory to explain the iPhone 3G connection problems many users have experienced. Apple has not acknowledged any such problems. "Richard Windsor of Nomura published a research note... Tuesday singling out the iPhone 3G's chipset, made by Infineon, as the probable culprit for the reception problems we reported on Monday. The dropped calls, service interruptions, and abrupt network switches experienced by iPhone 3G users reminded Windsor of similar complaints five years ago, when 3G phones were first launched in Europe. 'We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier,' Windsor wrote. 'This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users. Some people will not experience these problems as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows.'"
Don't blame 3G..... (Score:1, Informative)
The dropped calls, service interruptions, and abrupt network switches experienced by iPhone 3G users reminded Windsor of similar complaints five years ago, when 3G phones were first launched in Europe.
It reminds me of ATT...... I have had the same issues no matter what ATT phone I've used
Re:It's the antenna (Score:5, Informative)
battery life? As far as I know the iPhone pretty much beats all other 3G phones on battery life (whoops, scratch that. 3 Blackberrys beat the iPhone by a couple minutes. [pcworld.com])
So I'm not crazy (Score:5, Informative)
I have noticed a lot more dropped calls on the iPhone 3g. Between the poorer battery life, the dropped calls, and the inability to unlock the sim, the upgrade feels like a downgrade from my old iPhone.
Same problems with old phone.... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's the antenna (Score:5, Informative)
The iPhone has a larger capacity battery than many of those models. There's also not one single Nokia model on that list, and the N95 outlasts the iPhone easily.
New 3G Network (Score:4, Informative)
I work in the industry. I know AT&Ts' 3G network is new and really unproven. 2G service is way more reliable. I have a BlackJack and when I have it set to 2G I have awesome coverage with no problems. With my blackjack on 3G I get dropped calls. Jerky sounding calls. All with full signal all over town. I've tried other 3G phones with same results. I think this is common for any new network that hasn't worked out all its blemishes.
This is not an iPhone chip issue. It is a network issue.
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
When my lady and I bought a Mac LC in Tasmania a couple of years afterward, one of the system sounds available during the demo was a lovely "Quack!". We utterly pissed ourselves laughing in the showroom. Never explained why. Those crazy Yanks...
Re:No. (Score:5, Informative)
Really? So in Finder, View->Keep Arranged By->Kind doesn't work for you? How strange. I'm sure Google was broken that day, I just checked and it's in the first link.
You can also make the change permanent and global in View->Show View Options and setting the drop down of Arrange By to Kind and then clicking Use as Defaults.
Re:Schadenfreude (Score:3, Informative)
As for the ethical issues associated with Trusted Platform Modules, pretty much every VLSI company (Freescale, STMicroelectronics, TI etc) has products catering to this domain.
Re:No. (Score:1, Informative)
This is a very specific problem for switchers, of which there is a growing number. We're used to our "Explorer"-esque views being folders-by-alphabetical, then files-by-alphabetical - two easily distinguished alphabetical lists which make searching a binary choice followed by an alphabetical search. Finder either sorts all-by-alphabetical (simple alphabetical search), or files-by-alphabetical-by-type-by-alphabetical (simple alphabetical search ^ 2).
To expand on that - The difference is when sorting by kind, for a sufficiently large set of files, you'll have to scan multiple times through an alphabetical list - simple alphabetical searching is doubled, as you find the file type and then the file within the subset. Explorer allows you to differentiate quickly between groupings-of-files ("folders") and files themselves, and then finding the file name is simply a matter of knowing the filename.
You don't have to know any metadata about the file, such as that it is sorted by Finder into the "Video file" clumping instead of the "AVI File" clumping, for example - and keeping metadata as knowledge in the world rather than knowledge in your head is a good thing.
Apple's way around this is Spotlight - if you know the file name, don't even bother trying to navigate, just search.
Old habits die hard though, and as a usability metaphor the Windows method is just as easy to latch on to.
Re:No. (Score:2, Informative)
Although sometimes it pays to wait for Rev D -- that's usually the final version, and the most featureful.
At which point, Apple supercedes it with Shiny New Product Rev A!
Re:So I'm not crazy (Score:3, Informative)
You're forgetting that in Europe, 3G is pretty much a requirement for a phone such as this one as it's heavily relying on internet access. Personally I'm waiting until the next generation before getting one, or if the competition has caught up, a competitor.